Category: Redemption

We defend our faith through objective truth, and C. S. Lewis nailed it in eight words.

For this particular blog posting, let us take on the controversial issue of abortion to demonstrate objective decision-making. A woman (Ms. Jones) with an unplanned pregnancy says, “Religious people have no right to push their beliefs on others. If they want to believe that abortion is wrong, that’s okay for them, but I have the right to choose for myself.”

The declaration, “my right to choose for myself” proposes a fundamentally flawed perception, because any woman making that declaration has made prior conclusions that do not describe the reality of her situation—one person taking another person’s life. Therefore, Ms. Jones’ truth is subjective. So, how does Ms. Jones discover objective truth, especially in such a dire circumstance?

The starting point at which one discovers objective truth as it corresponds to reality is through the knowledge of truth, which depends on first principles. In Mrs. Jones situation, the most prevalent first principles from which she should make decisions are identity, causality, and finality.

Hence, Ms. Jones must conclude three things. First, her unborn fetus exists, and she knows it exists in her body (identity). Secondly, her unborn fetus began to exist, not from itself, but from another and therefore, she knows it depends on that other (causality). Finally, to abort her unborn fetus is a proposal that requires her to see an end, and therefore, know an intelligible meaning to that end (finality). Accordingly, her unborn fetus is in her body, depends on her, and its end will cause it not to exist.

Note that Ms. Jones brought “those religious people” into her declaration. Therefore, though not a religious person, Ms. Jones knows of moral truth because of God’s general or natural revelation. She knows her existence comes, not from another, but from the One who existed at the beginning of creation, and this same knowledge applies to the existence of her unborn fetus. However, because she rejects the first principles of knowledge, mainly identity, causality, and finality, Ms. Jones’ realities are flawed.

The declaration, I have the right to choose for myselfis essentially untenable, because Ms. Jones chooses to ignore the knowledge of first principles that are innate, yet experiential. Furthermore, if Ms. Jones “chooses for herself,” the sense experience filling her innate capacity will impose remorse, repugnance, and ruination, on her holistic life.

And where is this going you ask?

Ms. Jones is not able to know the reality of her decision to abort her unborn fetus, because she is not the one to qualify truth—God is.